LARKANA, May 8: The Earth Lovers’ Society has criticized the release of poisonous water of the Hirdin drain into the Hamal Lake. At its meeting here on Sunday, participants formed a Save Hamal Lake Forum to initiate a protest movement against the devastation of ancient lake in the foothills of the Khirthar mountain.

Munir Soomro presided over the meeting.

The meeting said that people living around the lake were prone to water-borne diseases as the recent outbreak of abdominal diseases had engulfed the entire area, killing five people.

They said hundreds of other people were referred to district and taluka hospitals of Larkana and Shahdadkot districts.

Forum secretary Zulfikar Rajpar said that a protest rally would be held on May 15 to draw the attention of authorities concerned towards poisoning of the lake.

Earlier, activists of the Sujag Bar Tehrik held a demonstration outside the press club in protest against the poisoning of Sindh lakes.

They demanded that brackish water of the Manchhar Lake should not be released into the Indus River as it could cause gastroenteritis in the lower Sindh.

They urged the government to take urgent steps to contain gastroenteritis that had affected a majority of population of Sindh right from Badin to Jacobabad.

SUIT: The taluka nazim has filed a suit in the court of senior civil judge against Syed Pir Shah for allegedly encroaching upon a portion of a public park.

Anwar Channo advocate who filed the case on behalf of Larkana Taluka Nazim Nazir Ahmed Shaikh told Dawn here on Sunday that the defendant being a land-grabber had illegally trespassed over the portion of public park by inserting false, forged and bogus entries in the city survey record.

He had illegally occupied 30,000 square feet of the public park.

It was the matter of record that the advocate submitted in the suit that no such transfer deed was issued from the settlement department to any body.

The plaintiff made all out efforts and even wrote to the Corps-5 Commander to remove the encroachment but in vain.

The plaintiff said that according to the directive of the chief settlement commissioner, Lahore, issued on May 3, 1966 that portions of the garden were transferable to any persons but may be sold straight away to the Larkana Municipal Committee under the Land Settlement Act 1958.

Being the custodian of public property the taluka nazim in his suit prayed the court to declare the entries in respect of city survey record bearing city survey illegal, void and without any lawful authority.

The court issued notices to Pir Shah, city survey officer, Larkana Mukhtiarkar and district officer revenue to appear in person to file their comments on June 6.